The appointment of Joan Dunlap as executive director of Mobile’s new Innovation Team has reignited a long-running debate over how many of Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s top staff members live outside the city they help run.
Dunlap, who grew up in Mobile and graduated from a local high school before returning to lead the newly formed team, lives in Baldwin County. Her hire pushes the share of Stimpson’s 12-member executive staff living in Baldwin County to exactly one-third, according to Colby Cooper, the mayor’s chief of staff. Cooper himself lives in Baldwin County, along with City Attorney Ricardo Woods and city spokesman George Talbot.
Of the remaining eight members of the mayor’s executive team, five live within Mobile’s city limits and three live elsewhere in Mobile County, Cooper said. He noted that the residency split among executive staff roughly mirrors the broader city workforce, with about one-third of the city’s total payroll, more than 800 employees, living outside Mobile County altogether.
The debate over where city leaders choose to live is not new for the Stimpson administration. In February 2014, District 1 Councilman Fred Richardson pushed back on the mayor’s recommendation to appoint Baldwin County developer Michael Pierce, a former chairman of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, to the Mobile Airport Authority board. Richardson ultimately voted in favor of the appointment but said at the time he had grown frustrated with what he saw as a pattern of Baldwin County residents filling key city roles. Months later, Richardson again raised concerns after Stimpson proposed giving more spending authority to the Community Foundation of South Alabama, led by a Fairhope resident.
Dunlap’s new role is tied to a three-year, $1.65 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies announced in December, aimed at creating an in-house consulting team to tackle blight and neighborhood revitalization citywide. Most of that funding will go toward staffing the Innovation Team, which Dunlap will help build out through additional hiring decisions in the coming months. She began her new duties this week and was scheduled to travel to New York later in March alongside the city’s director of planning and development for orientation with Bloomberg Philanthropies staff. Cooper confirmed Dunlap’s annual salary in the role will be $110,000.
The residency question has become something of a recurring flashpoint in Mobile city politics, with supporters of out-of-city hires arguing the administration should prioritize qualifications over zip codes, while critics contend that top officials shaping the city’s future should have a direct stake in living there. For her part, Dunlap has emphasized her deep family ties to Mobile and her interest in helping revitalize the community where she grew up, even as she continues to reside across Mobile Bay in Baldwin County.
The debate is likely to continue as the Innovation Team ramps up hiring in the months ahead, with city officials expected to face continued scrutiny over where new staff members choose to call home.